It seems the Artistic Director of the Berkeley Rep has something of a “following”. In fact, read the comments on a story we ran about him last week, and it becomes clear a certain group of fans is positively smitten with Tony Taccone, speaking with more than a little hyperbole of his brazen attractiveness, his warm personality, handsome features — even his prowess as a lover.

Berkeley Rep’s Artistic Director Tony Taccone.

Berkeleyside has reason to believe these people might know Mr Taccone well — in fact we would go so far as to say at least one of them is related to him. And — without wishing to “out” anonymous commenters — we would merely point our readers in the direction of a certain late-night weekend comedy show and ask if a little good-natured ribbing is not going on here?

The story in question covered the introduction of a new character to “Parenthood”, the NBC soap set in Berkeley. The actor Steven Weber has been hired to play Jack Kraft, the “artistic director of the Berkeley Theater”. Kraft will apparently become the love interest of character Sarah Braverman, played by Lauren Graham, in the April 19 season finale.

Once the post was published, the comments started coming in pretty quickly — and the breathless, tongue-in-cheek tone of many of them was something to behold. Lucky J wrote: “I met Tony last summer at a play at the Berkeley Rep and I must say was quite a stunning man. Originally of Puerto Rican and Italian descent, I could only imagine if all of the rumors about him as a lover were true.” Continue reading…